So why do you do it? Dont want to get a smudge of GU in your jersey pocket? Does it look cool to fling a wrapper on the ground? Are you worried that taking the time to tuck your trash might cost you 158th place? Do you think someone else is going to scour the entire route picking up the trash, and thats part of your entry fee? Or, do you have respect for nothing including yourself? I gotta know why you do it, as Im just about ready to knock you off your bike next time.
Tell us how you really feel about this? 
I use maltodextrin; 400-500 calories per water bottle with some extra baggies full to add to plain water to make more in a jersey pocket. Little mess, no litter, and no yucky gel taste!
Chris
For the record, I have had the DO NOT LITTER and KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL slogans drilled into my head so many times as a child and a Boy Scout that I still can’t get myself to litter. Weird, innit?
What kills me are the dog owners. There are receptacles with plastic bags specific for picking up dog poop on every block. I can usually spot 2-3 piles within 50 feet of these stations. How friggen lazy can you get?
I thought this was about cat litter. 
Same goes for smokers that toss the butts out their car window, it drives me nuts.
Sorry to hijack your thread, I stuff my gel wrappers into my shorts leg.
Andrew
how hard is it to stick a flatted tube into your back pocket or a couple of gel/bar wrappers. I love when people leave tubes on the ground. I pick them up, roll them up and then return them to their owners while we are riding saying something like "I’m sure you overlooked leaving this on the ground back there when you flatted’
I have been known to pick up the butt, ride, run or drive up to the person and hand it back and say “I’m sure you didn’t mean to litter.”
Of course, on a military base I’ll usually order the person to go back and pick it up. If they refuse, I get their name and unit. A call to their SgtMaj usually does the trick. The funniest one was the young LCpl who thought he’d just speed away from me without doing so. He got stopped about 1000 meters down the road for speeding. He got a ripping from the MP AND me. And I’m sure his SgtMaj had a word or three as well. Not a good day to decide to disobey a Captain.
This is a pet peeve of mine. Not to defend them, but smokers seem to do this atomatically - just toss the butt on the ground anywhere. Do they not consider it litter?
Perhaps, they would if they went to Kandavu Island - an out island off Fiji and saw a very remote otherwise pristine beach with an ugly ring of cigerette butts at high tide line. Yuck
I agree. The real question is how do we take them out? Close-line them as we meet them? Stick in the back wheel as we approach?
I stick the wrapper in my back pocket on the bike or in the leg of my shorts during the run. On the bike I mostly use a gel flask, no litter at all that way.
jaretj
This is a pet peeve of mine. Not to defend them, but smokers seem to do this atomatically - just toss the butt on the ground anywhere. Do they not consider it litter?
Perhaps, they would if they went to Kandavu Island - an out island off Fiji and saw a very remote otherwise pristine beach with an ugly ring of cigerette butts at high tide line. Yuck
As an ex-smoker, I can testify that most smokers are oblivious to their pollution whether it’s smoke, butts, or empty packages. Smokers regard their habit as an inherent right. When I smoked (over 30 years ago) that was exactly the case. We owned the world. I smoked when and where I wanted and if someone was bothered by it that was their problem, not mine. And when I was finished with my smoke it was well within my rights to toss the butt where ever I pleased. In fact, a real man can put a lit butt between his thumb and middle finger and flick that sucker 40 feet.
Drinkin’, drivin’, and smokin’ - where have the good old days gone? Can’t do nothin’ no more!
Larry
“What kills me are the dog owners. There are receptacles with plastic bags specific for picking up dog poop on every block. I can usually spot 2-3 piles within 50 feet of these stations.”
Here’s a funny story. I walk my dog in the morning and I drink my coffee on our walks. One morning I forgot the poop bag. My dog proceeds to do her business and I notice I have no bag to clean up after her. Being the good citizen, I stand there and finish my coffee, scoop it up, and finish our walk. I told my wife about it 3 or 4 days later. Needless to say, I now have my own personnal cup…she won’t go anywhere near it.
The moral of the story…there’s always a way.
when i see a smoker toss their butt i tell them that they dropped something. doesn’t always go over well though. especially when it’s a rather large chick that ends up in the same elevator. :-\
During the run at Tupper Lake two weeks ago, I was running behind a guy who threw away his gempty GU into the woods. When I pulled along side of him I asked him why he didn’t wait for an aid station. He just said, sorry. In hindsight, I should have told him to go pick it up. I will next time.
yep it’s something I just don’t understand
Last year at 1/2 Vineman some guy just tossed his bananna peel over his shoulder and it almost hit me. Too bad for him I was sitting in the rear seat of a Officials Motorcycle at the time. DING
“One morning I forgot the poop bag. My dog proceeds to do her business and I notice I have no bag to clean up after her. Being the good citizen, I stand there and finish my coffee, scoop it up, and finish our walk.”
Dude that is sooo wrong…
I applaude the citizenship but your coffee cup?..
Isn’t there a USAT rule agaist littering? Even if there is I guess the officials probably have enough to do and can’t be everywhere. Littering seems likely to erode public support for our events.
At every race I’ve done, the race director has told everyone that littering is a DQ.